“Heavy rainfall of more 30mm in 24hrs is expected over various parts of Coastal Kenya. The rains may start from the southern coast on Tuesday 19th September, 2017 and spread out into the northern coast by Wednesday 20th September 2017 and may continue to Thursday 21st September, 2017” reported the metrologists.

Such rainfall has been known to damage houses and cars collapse buildings, cause traffic jam and damage the environment. In some cases it even causes death; in May this year for instance, three people died following flooding in Mombasa. It also led to the halting of the ferry services and schools had to be closed as children could not commute in those conditions. Many families were also left homeless as a result of their houses being carried away by the flood.

“The rains are likely to cause flooding in low lying areas near the coastline, in river lines areas near dams and other water repositories. The flooding situation may worsen in some parts of the coast on Wednesday due to the act that a lot of water will have accumulated on the ground since Tuesday.”

The department has also instructed that people should not step into the rain water in the areas where it has flooded as it can be deeper and faster than it appears and it may appear in areas where it has not rained heavily.

People have also been advised to keep to safer grounds until the flooding subsides and users’ of canoes and boats should be careful of the storms and large waves.